UNRWA Seals Terror Tunnel Found Under Schools, Blasts Hamas for Putting Students at Risk

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestinian refugees announced on Monday that it had sealed a Hamas terror tunnel built under two of its schools in the Maghazi refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.

The tunnel was discovered at the beginning of June, after the Maghazi Elementary Boys A&B School and the Maghaz Preparatory Boys School had been closed for the summer. The Jerusalem Postreported that UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness has confirmed the sealing of the tunnel.

In a statement released when the tunnel was first discovered, Gunness said that “UNRWA condemns the existence of such tunnels in the strongest possible terms. It is unacceptable that students and staff are placed at risk in such a way.”

In the past, UNRWA filed complaints against Hamas--- the terrorist organization in complete military and political control of the Gaza Strip--- for building tunnels under its premises, vowing that it intended to seal the group’s military infrastructure.

At the heart of Hamas’s strategy is the use of Gazans as human shields–-- a war crime and terrorist tactic aimed at exploiting the moral sensibility of the enemy.

On Thursday of last week, the head of the IDF’s Southern Command, Maj. Gen. Eyal Zamir, told reporters that Hamas had built tunnel systems beneath an apartment building and a family home in the northern Gaza Strip. “Our intelligence shows without any doubt that Hamas is building its infrastructure for the next round of fighting in the civilian arena," Zamir explained.

In a speech before Iran's parliament on Tuesday, newly reelected President Hassan Rouhani threatened that if the United States continued to impose new non-nuclear sanctions on Iran, Iran could resume its nuclear program at a more advanced level than before the negotiations began.

“The new US administration officials should know that the failed experience of threats and sanctions forced their predecessors to come to the negotiating table," Iran's semi-official PressTV news reported Rouhani as saying. "If they prefer to return to those times, Iran will definitely return to a situation much more advanced than the start of the [nuclear] negotiations, not within months and weeks, but in a matter of hours and days."

The 2015 deal which allowed Iran to continue enriching uranium, also lifted nuclear sanctions on Iran. Then Secretary of State John Kerry told a Senate hearing at the time that non-nuclear sanctions were permitted under the deal.

Late last month, the U.S. imposed sanctions on Iran for its illicit ballistic missile program. Meanwhile, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom have agreed with the U.S. that Iran's missile program, and specifically its recent launch of a Simorgh missile, violated Security Council resolution 2231, which formalized the 2015 nuclear deal.

In 2006, The Telegraphreported that Rouhani, referring to a 2004 nuclear deal Iran made with the UK, France, and Germany, and which Iran withdrew from nearly a year later, said that the earlier deal allowed Iran to complete critical advances of its nuclear program.

Kuwait Busts Terror Cell Tied to Iran, Hezbollah

Kuwait announced the capture of twelve members of a terror cell linked to Hezbollah and Iran, who had been charged with planning attacks across the nation on Saturday.

The suspects had been captured in different parts of Kuwait, Agence France-Presse reported. They had been on the run for weeks since they escaped from custody after sentencing last month. Two other convicted Kuwaitis remain at large.

In June, Kuwait's supreme court had reinstated the convictions of the men for plotting terror attacks which had been overturned by a lower court.

Kuwait has protested to Lebanon, where Hezbollah effectively controls the government, of training the members of the "Abdali Cell."

Last month Kuwait expelled 15 Iranian diplomats and shut down the military, cultural, and traded missions associated with the Iranian embassy over their support for the terror cell.

Iran has denied any involvement.

In March of 2016, after designating Hezbollah a terrorist organization by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)---which is composed of composed of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates---Kuwait expelled 60 Lebanese nationals for suspicion of ties to Hezbollah.

Israeli Emergency Workers Head to Sierra Leone to Offer Aid after Deadly Flooding

Israeli humanitarian aid workers are helping survivors in the wake of heavy flooding and a devastating mudslide which buried houses on the outskirts of Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown, early on Monday morning.

So far more than 300 people are reported dead, thousands are still missing, and some 2,500 have been left homeless after the disaster, which happened when torrential rain led to the worst flooding in decades.

Torrents of water rushed through the city in the early hours of the morning, sweeping away entire homes, creating mudslides and leaving massive destruction in its wake.

At least 100 houses were hit when a hillside in Regent, a town near Freetown, collapsed on Monday morning. Some buildings were completely submerged by the mud, burying inhabitants as they slept.

Workers from IsraAID, an Israeli non-governmental humanitarian aid organization working in Sierra Leone in partnership with the American Jewish Committee and the Israeli Embassy of Senegal, have been helping to recover bodies from the water, and offering survivors food, clean water, sanitation, and other essential items, as well as psychological assistance and stress relief.

“People are overwhelmed by the enormity of the disaster,” said Andra Weissberger, IsraAID’s country director in Sierra Leone.

IsraAID has been working in Sierra Leone since 2014, offering support to Ebola epidemic survivors. The Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone claimed 4,000 lives.